Malgrate

Villa Bertarelli, Galbiate

Visit duration: 45 min – 1 h 30
Booking: Not required
Area: Lecco Branch

Carlo Dell'Orto · CC BY-SA 4.0

Maupao70 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Carlo Dell'Orto · CC BY-SA 4.0
Carlo Dell'Orto · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

Villa Bertarelli is a historic house in Galbiate, with terraced gardens overlooking the Brianza lakes.

The complex was altered in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by Giuseppe Bovara, Carlo Santamaria and Piero Portaluppi. Portaluppi was responsible for the decorative renewal of 1911–1913: the façades have stone frames, stucco elements and painted motifs around the windows. Paths, statues and fountains run through the gardens.

Terraced gardens above the lakes of the Brianza, with pebble-mosaic parterres, a nymphaeum and a historic greenhouse.
Portaluppi's decoration in a villa where Carlo Porta stayed, headquarters of Parco Monte Barro.

Highlights

The formal garden with fountains, nymphaeum and pebble mosaics
The brolo and Giuseppe Bovara's gate (1816)
The historic greenhouse and the pergola

Getting there

It is at Via Bertarelli 11 in Galbiate, in the Rizzolo quarter, on the road to Camporeso. Galbiate is reached by bus from Lecco, or by train to Sala al Barro station and then uphill on foot.

The garden front, with its decorated window frames, wrought-iron balconies and shutters.

Accessibility

In front of the villa there is a large car park with four spaces reserved for disabled visitors and an automatic double gate; the Centro Flora Autoctona is entered by a short ramp, and inside there is an accessible toilet.
The gardens are laid out in terraces, with paths partly of gravel and partly of compacted earth: the terraces are reached by twenty-nine steps or, on the right-hand side of the villa, by a thirty-metre downhill stretch over compacted stones and gravel, with a gradient of 8 to 10 per cent.